


The First Rule

by perihadion



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Past Relationship(s), Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22705342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perihadion/pseuds/perihadion
Summary: Fennec and Din reflect on a relationship they once shared. Set during 1x05.
Relationships: Fennec Shand/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 42





	The First Rule

Fennec Shand waited at her vantage point, knowing there was at least one more hunter on her trail on Tatooine. The ground she occupied was of strategic value, and she could pick them off before moving on.

She watched as the speeder bikes approached: one carried a young man, not much more than a child, but the other —

A Mandalorian. Now, that was interesting.

It had been several years since Fennec had seen a Mandalorian. In fact, she had met only one since the fall of the Empire, before the bounty was placed on her head. She remembered their delicious give-and-take, both aware that it was only a matter of time before the New Republic got around to making her an enemy of the Guild.

The beskar which had clad that Mandalorian had been much less beautiful than this one who glimmered and shone in the light from Tatooine's twin suns — but she wondered if it could be the same man. It had been years since their paths had crossed. It would be a shame to snipe that Mandalorian, who had been so much fun. But they had always known it would come to this if they re-entered each other’s orbits.

*

Din had not heard the name “Fennec Shand” for many years and in truth he preferred not to think of her. He had wondered at times, late at night, how she was faring on the run. He knew that she would not be easy to kill or capture. Though her skill as a sharpshooter meant that she could barter a position with the New Republic and have her record expunged he knew she would never choose to do that if she could keep running. She was proud.

“No gods and no masters,” she used to say to him, forcing his head up to look at her. He remembered just how much she had liked to be in charge. How long ago was that now?

“You could join the Guild,” he had said to her once, breaking their first and most sacred rule: no tenderness, no feelings. “There are no bounties on Guild members’ heads. You would be immune.” She had just laughed.

“No gods,” she said. “No masters.”

He had always known that _when_ the New Republic put the bounty on her head it would fall to him to collect it. Nobody else could do it. Only him.

*

He was no fool, this Mandalorian. He had some sort of plan.

When she saw the two figures mount the speeder bikes she thought: not my Mandalorian, then. Her Mandalorian would never be so stupid as to think just because the suns had set she would be unable to snipe them.

When the first flash burned through her vision she thought: ah, then again.

It was a shame that she was going to kill him, her Mandalorian. But it was all the more necessary to take him out first. She breathed in, focused herself, found the space between his beats, and shot the bike out from under him.

But something in her slipped and she broke their first rule. She shot him in the chest, knocking him flat on his back, and not somewhere it might kill him. It was simple hubris, she thought, when she heard his voice — and now she was almost sure it was him — to think that she could finish off the boy before he was back on his feet.

He had always had a short refractory period, her Mandalorian. And she remembered how he had liked to beg. Well, she wouldn’t beg for him.

*

It was no surprise that Fennec would mention Nevarro. Din knew that word travelled fast through the underworld. But there was a certain bite to the way she asked him if he had ever been there which made him wonder if she was asking if the Mandalorian who had caused the firefight and the Mandalorian she knew were one and the same.

It felt strange, unfamiliar to be rough with her. This had never been their arrangement. He pushed her to the ground, and wondered if his threat to drag her behind the speeder bike sounded as unconvincing as it felt.

In truth he was relieved not to wait behind with her, though he did not trust her — and did not trust what she knew about him. But it seemed inconceivable that he could spend hours in her company without revealing their shared past, without breaking the first rule.

*

This was a way they could both win just a little longer. There was no need for the Mandalorian to take her in, and there was no need for her to kill him — if she could convince the boy to uncuff her. It was almost too thrilling to alight on this way of betraying him without betraying him, this way of getting away without killing him.

But they had made the first rule for a reason, and breaking it was dangerous. That was what Fennec had forgotten and what, as she lay bleeding on the sand, she vowed never to forget again.

She had a vague sensation of the dewback’s approach and wondered what the Mandalorian must have felt as he looked down on her fading body.

If I die, she thought at him, I died free. No gods, and no masters.

“No gods, no masters,” she heard him say — and in that moment she knew.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [twitter](http://twitter.com/theoceanblooms) or [tumblr](http://spectroscopes.tumblr.com)! If you really liked this fic, it would be lovely if you could [reblog](https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/190816822179/UH52wecz) on tumblr.


End file.
